Chip Cooper, artist-in-residence at the Honors College, has published a photography book about Cuba. But the same things that drew him to the guarded island nation – the mystery, for one – have also drawn him to the Black Belt of Alabama for the past 30 years.

“It’s been one of my passions to photograph in the Black Belt,” he said. “[The Black Belt has] been a source of inspiration to me.”

The Honors College hosted a gallery opening in Marion, Alabama, May 22 that featured 51 of his Black Belt photographs as its inaugural exhibit.

“It’s like an ode to an area,” he said. “The Black Belt is intriguing to me because there’s so much down there to photograph.”

The photographs in the exhibit cover a wide range of subjects, Cooper said.

“Nothing fits together, yet everything fits together. The theme is eclectic and that’s what the Black Belt is,” he said. “That’s what I’m drawn to.”

The gallery opening is part of the 57 Miles partnership between the Honors College and Perry County. Davis Jackson, Honors College Student Services intern and graduate student, said the Honors College has been working in the Black Belt since 2009.

“With the exception of the 2011 interim session following the [April 27, 2011] tornado, the Fellows have spent each May working with community members in Marion in the areas of economic development, education, community engagement and health care,” he said. “The projects first and foremost directly correspond to expressed community needs.”

Jackson said the 57 Miles initiative extended opportunities in the Black Belt to all Honors students, not just Fellows.

“The Black Belt is an incredible place to further your education beyond the classroom. Students have the opportunity to learn firsthand some of the largest issues facing or state, nation and world in a place that is less than an hour away,” he said. “These experiences take the more theoretical pursuits that we explore in a classroom setting and provide context and application.”

The photography exhibit, he said, truly belongs to the Black Belt community, and he hopes to see it become a place of meeting and celebration. Jackson said he hopes students will visit both the exhibit and the region.

Cooper said the gallery’s design and quality rivals spaces found in New York City. Now the Black Belt has not only a piece of high quality arts and culture but also one that is currently dedicated to showcasing itself. He has been going to the Black Belt for six years, photographing everything from cemeteries to quilters at Gee’s Bend.

“I think part of [the value of going to the Black Belt] is [that] if you try to judge your world by what happens on campus, you’ve shortsighted yourself,” he said.

Cooper is also an artist-in-residence in Fototeca de Cuba in Havana, Cuba. Like the Black Belt, he said, Cuba is a place of mystery. As a photographer, Cooper said he enjoys being out of his comfort zone and taking an extra-hard look at things that have been passed over.

Sometimes when his drive for photography and his need for a break collide, he takes a trip to the Black Belt.

“I like to shoot so I’ll just go down to the Black Belt. … [I’ll] take a right, a left, a right and get lost,” he said. “And wherever I end up, I take photographs.”

“The Black Belt: Photography of Chip Cooper” will be on permanent display for the next year. Contact the Perry County Chamber of Commerce at 334-683-9622 to schedule a visit.

(See also “‘Haunted Alabama Black Belt’ chronicles hauntings“)